As a designer you need to be aware of your international scope. Assignors, superiors, colleagues, clients and customers might carry different (sub)cultural backgrounds. This influences their way of thinking, working, talking, operating etc... In communicating with them, either in words or designs, you need to be aware of the different values they might have in comparison to your own. This assignment will help you to discover your own values, what theory could help you with discovering others and how this influences i.e. the work ethics, company culture and design briefs. – Description of the assignment in Oase
During the assignment we had to work together in teams and give a presentation about the theory of the book that we read (Cultures and Organizations – Software of the mind by Geert Hofstede). In order to give a good presentation we had to discuss and understand the theory, and use all of the interpretations to make one presentation. We also had to conduct an expat interview, which we had to plan.
Using the theory I have learned to understand the background and the values of users with different cultural backgrounds. The five dimensions are the perfect way to describe any cultural differences.
Social cultural awareness is the basis for this assignment. I already have cultural experience, due to a lot of travelling and working together with different cultures in my project, and this assignment helped putting this experience in perspective.